With each year, the number of applications for the CGL has been rising. In 2013, about 12 lakh candidates took the CGL examination while the number rose to 14 lakh in 2014. In 2015, it was 17 lakh.

The Staff Selection Commission has informed that this year, they have received 30,26,598 on-line applications for the CGLE 2017.

The exam will be conducted in four stages — Tier -1, Tier- 2, Tier – 3 and Tier – 4. Tier 1 exam will be held from August 1 to August 20, 2017.

Tier 1 exam will be computer-based exam which will have 25 questions of 50 marks each for general intelligence, reasoning, general awareness, quantitative aptitude and English comprehension. For this one hour long test, the aspirants have to score a maximum of 200 marks. There will be a negative marking of 0.5 for each wrong answer.